Maria Bello, the actress best known for her roles in “Coyote Ugly” and “Grown Ups,” has come out.
In a New York Times piece, the 46-year-old revealed that she’s in a relationship with a woman.
“We had an immediate connection but didn’t think of it as romantic or sexual,” the “Prisoners” star wrote of media executive Clare Munn. “She was one of the most beautiful, charming, brilliant and funny people I had ever met, but it didn’t occur to me, until that soul-searching moment in my garden, that we could perhaps choose to love each other romantically.”
Adding, “What had I been waiting for all of these years? She is the person I like being with the most, the one with whom I am most myself.”
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The actress explained that her 12-year-old son Jackson, who she had with TV executive Dan McDermott, has been very supportive.
“‘Mom, love is love, whatever you are,’” she said recounting her son’s words in the article.
When she decided to begin a journey with Clare, she was worried about how it would affect her work and her son. But Jackson was fine with it. “Mom, love is love, whatever you are,” he told her.
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“So I would like to consider myself a ‘whatever,’ as Jackson said. Whomever I love, however I love them, whether they sleep in my bed or not, or whether I do homework with them or share a child with them, ‘love is love,’” Maria wrote. “And I love our modern family. Maybe, in the end, a modern family is just a more honest family.”
In related LGBT news, British Olympic diver Tom Daley came out as bisexual and said he’s currently dating a man in a YouTube video on Monday.
“Come spring this year my life changed massively when I met someone and they made me feel so happy, so safe, and everything just feels great – and, well, that someone is a guy. And it did take me by surprise a little bit. It was always in the back of my head that something like that could happen, but it wasn’t until the spring of this year that it clicked, felt right,” Tom, 19, said. “Like I said, my whole world just changed, right there and then. And of course I still fancy girls but right now I’m dating a guy, and I just feel safe, and it really does just feel right. Is it a big deal? I don’t think so.”
— Jesse Spero
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